SEATTLE -- It had to end at some point. For the first time in three weeks, the Mariners lost a baseball game.

Seattle came one victory shy of tying its franchise record set during its historic 2001 season, falling, 5-2, to Houston in front of a sold-out crowd at T-Mobile Park on Friday, ending their streak at 14 games, tied for MLB’s longest this season. With it came a sense of the all-too-familiar feeling of their May-into-June downturn via nine stranded baserunners, as they went 0-for-9 with runners in scoring position. The first-place opponent made it perhaps more difficult to stomach.

Yet the most pressing development was that they faced an uphill climb from the start, when Julio Rodríguez -- objectively, their best player -- was scratched moments before first pitch with left wrist soreness, an injury he suffered sliding into second on a stolen-base attempt last Sunday. The AL Rookie of the Year favorite played catch pregame and took part in a ceremony unveiling the 2023 All-Star Game logo, suggesting that the injury isn’t significant. But his absence loomed large.

"He's a huge part of our team, there's no question about it," Mariners manager Scott Servais said. "Hitting leadoff, kind of setting the tone and doing what he does. So guys have to step up without him. ... It's not the same without Julio at the top of the lineup."

All told, though the Mariners ultimately came short of passing the defending champion Braves for the longest win streak in MLB this year, they’ve made substantial progress in the past month, going from 5.3 percent odds to reach the postseason -- when they dropped to 10 games under .500 on June 19 and were on the verge of an early-summer spiral -- to 68.7 percent entering play Friday, per FanGraphs.

Since the divisional era began in 1969, and not counting the strike-shortened 1994 season, only two teams -- the 1991 Rangers and 1999 Padres -- have gone on a 14-game win streak in a season and not reached the postseason. 

“It's disheartening,” Servais said. “But I can't say enough about the group that we have and how much big-time baseball we’ve got ahead of us here in the next few months.”

Despite the void left by Rodríguez, the Mariners looked like they had more magic brewing in the eighth inning after loading the bases with one out and then drawing an RBI walk that brought Kyle Lewis to the plate as the tying run. But the slugging right fielder was the victim of an absurd catch by Astros shortstop Jeremy Peña on a ball that would’ve scored one, possibly two. Cal Raleigh followed with an inning-ending strikeout to halt the rally.

“I think even the nights earlier in the season when we were having trouble scoring runs, we were creating a ton of opportunities,” Servais said. “And you saw that again tonight. It's just getting that big hit at a key time.”

The late-inning shortcomings, coupled with a solo homer from Ty France in the sixth inning, wasn’t nearly enough on a night when the Mariners played from behind from the outset.

Marco Gonzales surrendered a leadoff homer to Jose Altuve on the third pitch of the game, then he gave up two more solo homers to Yordan Alvarez in the fourth and Martín Maldonado in the fifth, which kept the contest within reach. But a sacrifice fly from Alvarez and back-to-back hits in the sixth that scored another proved to be costly.

It was the first time since his 2022 debut in Minnesota, arguably his worst start of the season, in which Gonzales gave up three homers. He’s now surrendered at least five runs in each of his past two starts, including on July 14 at Texas, a game in which the Mariners came back and won. That’s the only game during the 14-game win streak in which a Seattle starter gave up that many runs.

As was the case in Arlington, Gonzales is battling the challenges of facing a division opponent for the third time this season and combatting the significant adjustments they’ve made against him. On Friday, he fell behind early. Altuve’s homer was on a 2-0 count, Alvarez on a 2-1 count, while Maldonado ambushed him on the first pitch.  

That said, run support -- which has been a crucial issue in his outings -- was again thin.  

“You’ve just got to find a way to get the big hit,” Servais said. “And we didn't get it done tonight.”